-
Recent Posts
Tags
ain't Americanisms apostrophe attitudes attitudes to usage BBC Bryan Garner call for papers corpus could of database David Crystal education English usage facebook flat adverbs fowler grammar Henry Fowler humour ICEHL Jane Austen John Honey Kingsley Amis less/fewer like lowth lucl Lynne Truss oed OUP prescriptivism Prescriptivism conference punctuation spelling split infinitive survey technology The Language Trap try and University of Leiden usage usage guides usage poll usage problemsBlogroll
- A Robert Lowth blog
- A Way with Words
- Arnold Zwicky's Blog
- Arrant Pedantry
- Genootschap Onze Taal
- Grammar Monkeys
- Langitudes
- Language Log
- Lingua Franca
- Mind Your Language
- Not One-Off Britishisms
- On Language
- OUPblog Lexicography & Language
- Proper English Usage
- The Web of Language
- Throw Grammar from the Train
- Turning over a New Leaf
- World Wide Words
-
Categories
Archives
Twitter Updates
- On our blog: the both of you ow.ly/ljwJ6 12 hours ago
- The abstract booklet for the upcoming workshop Attitudes to Prescriptivism is available for downloading! ow.ly/ljwCb #A2P 12 hours ago
- Back in the UK: grammar tests! #grammar bridgingtheunbridgeable.com/2013/05/17/new… 6 days ago
- Koffie's or koffies? #Dutch #plural bridgingtheunbridgeable.com/2013/05/15/kof… 6 days ago
- Please remember to check out... or don't forget to check out? #usageproblems bridgingtheunbridgeable.com/2013/05/14/ple… 6 days ago
Author Archives: Ingrid Tieken
Fuck my grammar, Mary
And here is another one from Marilyn French’s Our Father. This time an old chestnut. Mary, the middle one (of the legitimate sisters) is discussing feminism with illegitimate and coloured Ronnie: … As long as women have the babies they will … Continue reading
Posted in usage features
Tagged Marilyn French, prescriptivism in literature, who vs. whom
2 Comments
The both of you
Prescriptivism in literature or films: I’ve already noted a few examples in this blog. Here is another one. It is from Marilyn French‘s novel Our Father (1994). Alex, the first speaker, is one of the three (or four if you include illegitimate … Continue reading
Posted in usage features
Tagged Marilyn French, prescriptivism in literature, the both of you
1 Comment
New grammar tests in English schools
Marilyn Hedges, one of the readers of this blog, asked me to post the following: Formal grammar teaching in English schools stopped in the 1960s, as Anya Luscombe mentioned in her recent talk in Leiden. It seems as if the … Continue reading
Posted in news
Tagged grammar tests in schools, Guardian, spelling tests in schools, Telegraph
1 Comment
Bertie vs. Mr Brown
The film Mrs Brown (1997), featuring Judi Dench and Billy Connolly, includes an interesting scene from the point of view of prescriptivism. At one point (ca. 50 minutes into the film), Bertie, the Prince of Wales, addresses the pertinent Mr … Continue reading
Preserving students’ self-esteem?
In his book Spoilt rotten: the toxic cult of sentmentality (2011), Theodore Dalrymple writes: “a friend of mine who teaches history at Oxford is specifically enjoined by the guidelines provided for markers [of papers, exams] by the authorities not to mark … Continue reading
Posted in general
Tagged grammar mistakes, spelling errors, Theodore Dalrymple, University of Oxford
1 Comment
John E. Metcalfe?
Who was John E. Metcalfe? He appears to have been the author of a usage guide, called The Right Way to Improve your English. The book is cited by Milroy and Milroy (1999), but (apart from a couple of references to … Continue reading
Publication history Fowler ctd.
In an earlier post, I announced my attempts to reconstruct the publication history of Fowler’s Modern English Usage. This weekend, I was able to lay my hands on another copy of Fowler (my 8th!) at the same second-hand shop, and equally … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Prescription conference papers
For a list of speakers at the prescription conference (University of Leiden, 12 – 14 June 2013) as well as for the abstracts of the plenary speakers, see the black bar above. The abstracts of the speakers will follow soon.
This blog in the Leiden University Yearbook for 2012
The Bridging the Unbridgeable blog got a mention in the University Yearbook Our World which appeared on the Leiden Dies, on 8 February. Read all about it on page 21.
Focussing? Focusing?
A while ago, I used to get phone calls from colleagues from all over the university with questions like how to write focussing, with single or double s. As a member of the English department I was expected to know these … Continue reading
Posted in usage features
Tagged Burchfield, focussing or focusing, fowler, Microsoft, spelling
Leave a comment
